St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-19
SAM SLICK'S STORY.
A Thrilling Narration of How He
Went One Night to Serve Writ
of Attachment.

n l0t1I11nS Narration Ol HOW nc
Went One Night to Serve Writ
of attachment.
Among the various duties of a travel
ing salesman there are none so disagree
able as collections. In this department
of our work we meet with many heart
touching incident, as well as run the
chances of ruffling our serene temperS
by a windy contest with pig-headed
beligerent who recognizes no business
usage that conflicts with his own sweet
will.
A few years ago, after the repeal of
of the bankrupt law, failures were fire.
quent, and as it was practically case
of ''first come, first served" the boys
often had many contest as to who
would be ''first in" and under the cir
cumstances many poor fellow was
showed to the wall that under later and
better laws might have pulled through.
/ recSived one afternoon telegram
stating Mr.. -, OF --, is Shaky;
go to -, county seat, and get out
attachment at once" lost no time, and
the first train took me to the county
seat, where / routed my lawyer out of
bed and as quickly as possible the pa
pers were in the hands of the sheriff,
and about midnight the sheriff and [
left the city for the village,
twelve miles distant, where dwelt
the belligerent merchant. The sheriff
boosted Of good team and under that
beautiful starlit summer sky we drove
merrily along and chatted of the affairs
of, -, and l felt a little elated at the
prospect of being ahead of one of my most
bitter competitors, and finally converse
tiiOn tagged and / fell to thinking of
the poor fellow whose sleep we were
soon to so unpleasantly disturb, and l
was exceedingly sorry for him and
would have given good deal to be
spared the disagreeable business. He
was a good fellow, but bad manager,
and was by no means vicious fellow
or dead beat. thought of his young
and devoted wife and the sorrow his
failure would cause her. Thus ran my
thoughts and we drove into the sleep
ing Village. no lights anywhere and all
as still as death, between and O'Clock
in the morning. We turned corner
a winding road from the river side
heavily skirted with forest trees, and
suddenly around the bend of
the road appeared a procession
of men. bearing torches and
moving slowly and apparently noise
lessly, and the horses stopped evidently
as astonished as we, and breathlessly
we awaited the OncOming procession,
failing utterly to understand what its
ghOstly mission was at this unseemly
hour. AS they drew nearer l scanned
their sober. earnest faces and saw they
were bearing something covered on the
shoulders of 1alf a dozen men, and.
leaving the sheriff, / fastened to the
group and learned man had been
drowned. A gust of wind blew aside
the covering of the face and l recOg-
nized Mr.. -, the man for whom |
had the attachment papers. l then for
the first time recognized the grief
stricken woman walking by him as his
poor, heart broken wife. Words of SYM
pathy were out of place. Feeling dazed
and queer and sort of guilty, 1 left the
crowd and returned to the buggy. TO
the sheriff's inquiry as to the trOnble, |
replied: Stay of proceedings issued
from the highest cOurt-Mr. -- is
drowned" In silence we drove back.
and believe our mission to that village
was never known. but the memory of
that nights business and its unexpected
termination will never fade from my
memory. SAM SLICK.